The invention pertains to optical communication networks with spectral multiplexing (WDM). The invention also pertains to an optical packet switching device, and, more generally, to the network components for such a communication network.
We know of optical packet add-drop multiplexers for optical communication networks with spectral multiplexing, for example according to US 2002/0131118. The fundamental functions of such a device are the insertion of traffic, the extraction of traffic, the transmission of traffic, and the extraction-transmission of multipoint traffic. By completing the transmission function transparently, which is to say without converting the data signal to the electronic domain, the number of optical transponders necessary is reduced in relation to a communication node producing an electronic conversion of all incoming traffic.